Marriage Laws Protect Israel's Jewish Identity

Published: December 31, 1994

Using incendiary and wholly inaccurate terms like "religious untouchables" to describe Jews prohibited by Jewish law from marrying certain other Jews (news article, Dec. 23) smells of malice.

Jewish law has, for millenniums, limited marriages between certain people, no less than most societies do for incest and bigamy. While many may opt out of adherence to those restrictions, the strength of the Jewish people is rooted in our adherence to the Torah, difficult as its immutable laws sometimes seem.

At its inception, Israel made a wise decision to preserve its Jewish character by leaving personal status and marriage issues to traditional Jewish law. Secularists, it reasoned, can either accept what they may not like in this area or live in one of the world's non-Jewish countries.

To resent the direct and fully expected outcome of that national policy, in effect now for nearly 50 years, is like cursing one's alarm clock for working. (Rabbi) AVI SHAFRAN Director, Public Affairs Agudath Israel of America New York, Dec. 24, 1994